With the orange colored aisle in the local supermarkets, the trick-or-treaters at the door and the many parties with the fun-sized candy, Halloween marks the start of the holiday season and the slow creep of added inches to the waist.
Despite the empty calories, many say it’s not necessary to cut out candy but eat it in portions that are controlled, enabling people to still enjoy their favorite holiday treats.
“I’m not the food police, so I don’t tell my clients ‘hey, don’t eat that,’ I educate them,” said Tarrah McCreary, a graduate assistant with Working Well at Ball State. “Knowing how to identify what that food is doing for you and be aware of how to work it in meal plans and work it into your diet is important.”
McCreary said it’s important to look at nutrition labels on candy bars. If it’s over the 20 percent in the daily value, then it’s too much.
“It would be considered a treat every once in awhile because you would be getting more fat in your daily consumption than you would need,” she said. “You want to keep those for every once in awhile. You wouldn’t want to eat that everyday, and you wouldn’t have like 10 of those everyday.”
Children especially should use portion control during this time of year with the plentiful supply of candy.
“It’s about portion control and not letting your child sit down with an entire bucket of candy and experience a sugar high and then a crash,” said Julie Sturek, adjunct instructor of health science at Ball State. “I don’t believe in restricting or labeling foods as good or bad, everything can fit in moderation.”
Sometimes after much of the Halloween candy has been eaten, Dr. Jeff Rector, a dentist in Muncie, sees more patients who have eaten sticky candy that will ultimately pop off caps and fillings.
“We try to tell everybody not to eat the sticky candies and if you do, make sure you brush after,” he said. “We all have to be human, we’re all going to eat a little candy here and there. Just make sure you brush well after you have it and try to avoid the real sticky caramels and stuff like Laffy Taffy and things like that.”
On the reverse side, limiting children’s food isn’t always the answer.
“Research suggests that tightly restricting food tends to increase their desirability and teaching children to self regulate, self monitor, to learn to take a small amount and save some for later is a very helpful thing for Halloween candy and for life,” said Jo Chezem, associate chairperson and associate professor in the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences at Ball State. “I’m all about the moderation.”
Adults need to focus on portion control too, Sturek said.
“Pre-portion out what you want your snack to be,” she said. “Halloween is like the start of the holiday season and there’s going to be lots of opportunities coming up for extra treats, so just being mindful of how much you’re taking in so that the holiday pounds don’t sneak up on you.”
For people seeking healthier alternatives to the usual candies, McCreary suggests Twizzlers.
“Looking at candy itself you could use that one as a substitute if you were going to go for a Snickers bar or something,” she said. “It is important for people to know there are other options out there. That they know these healthy options can benefit their future.”
People are beginning to change from traditional candy to other options to still get that sweet tooth satisfied but without all the added calories, Chezem said.
“I think when you go to the store you will see that there are alternatives to what we would consider the more concentrated sweets,” she said. “There are things like granola bars and fruit roll ups and pre-packaged raisins and other dried fruit. If people don’t want to give sweets and would rather give an alternative, I think there are lots of options out there.”
Alia Blackburn, Benecia Brown, Kylee Cress and Steven Williams contributed to this story.
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